Over 40,000 Famous Quotes Sorted By Topic and Author

To be matter of fact about the world is to blunder into fantasy -- and dull fantasy at that, as the real world is strange and wonderful.

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded- here and there, now and then- are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.This is known as "bad luck.".

The greatest productive force is human selfishness.

A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.

Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done and why. Then do it.

Learning isn't a means to an end; it is an end in itself.

If "everybody knows" such-and-such, then it ain't so, by at least ten thousand to one.

A monarch's neck should always have a noose around it -- it keeps him upright.

No intelligent man has any respect for an unjust law.

Taxes are not levied for the benefit of the taxed.

There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.

Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny.

The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.

Beauty is not diminished by being shared.

...brainpower is the scarcest commodity and the only one of real value.

If you happen to be one of the fretful minority who can do creative work, never force an idea; you'll abort it if you do. Be patient and you'll give birth to it when the time is ripe. Learn to wait.

Avoid making irrevocable decisions when tired or hungry.

To stay young requires unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods.

The hardest part of gaining any new idea is sweeping out the false idea occupying that niche.

Obscurity is the refuge of incompetence.